Hungry Heart PDX

Hungry Heart is my favorite Portland coffee shop & bakery! Great (Stumptown) coffee, super tasty (sweet & savory) treats, and an incredibly friendly staff!

Warm. That is the first word to describe this place. I walked in and it was warm. Some coffee houses, while of high quality and hospitality can sometimes be cold inside – temperature and personality. This place had an intangible coziness and it’s not like they had moodlighting or sofas.
It was bright, there were guests seated having conversations or computing, I headed to the counter and evaluated the pastry case. Wow. Everything looked decadent and of good quality. The bite sized cupcakes were adorable.
I was greeted very quickly and I just —couldn’t decide but wanted the house coffee to go. I had already brought snacks and lunch with me for work. Stumptown Hairbender is their house pour.
They have little gifty, greeting card area, too. This shop was very sincere and charming. I am looking forward to treating myself to another treat soon.
Great impression for a quick coffee.

The little treats here were so so. I ordered a couple different kinds, one being pretty good and the other being put in the trash lol. The deserts weren’t really what put me off about this place though, the guy working behind the counter did. He wasn’t friendly and just seemed like he couldn’t get himself together to do the simplest task, like put a rubber band around a Togo box. I had to stand and watch him have a mini melt down and fumble with them for what felt like the longest time, maybe he had OCD, idk. I would much rather write positive reviews, but unfortunately I just couldn’t for this place. I think I’ll give it another shot since its in walking distance from my house. Maybe if they had someone else working behind the counter it would be a positive experience. I’ll keep you posted.

It’s rare you find a neighborhood spot where you feel like family. The staff is friendly, weird, and oddly knowledgeable in all things cup and cake. They know your name, remember how you take your coffee, and make every single food item from scratch in house.
Also, during the holidays they have PIES!!! Made with serious love and bomb flavors.

This place epitomizes what is great about Portland: fresh baked goods scratch-​made on site. Excellent coffee with BOTH hemp and soy milk on hand for those who avoid dairy. Free wifi, a cozy (but clean) neighborhood feel and décor. I can’t wait to go back and try more goodies!

I love having an alternative to the increasingly grungy bipartisan. Their baked goods are delicious! I would give them 5 stars if they would change their to-​go cupcake packaging, Seriously, it starts lovely and ends in a huge mess. Remember Tiffany’s song «Could’ve been so beautiful?». That’s how I felt last time I got their cupcakes for a work meeting. Please, Hungry Heart, be responsive to the feedback that others have given you! :)

The place is so freakin’ adorable. It’s a little store front that entices you to come inside. Once inside, there are a few tables, a counter with a bakery case and a cold case, a bulletin board, and little gift items for purchase. The pastries looked phenomenal, but I only had one thing in mind… macarons; the whole, entire reason I bookmarked this place. They were $ 2 each, but if you but two, they’re $ 3.50. They had four flavors: pumpkin spice, salted caramel, caramel apple, and vanilla. I ordered three of the four flavors: pumpkin spice, caramel apple, and vanilla. The pumpkin spice had great flavor. The caramel apple had bits of apple in it, but it tasted more like apple — not caramel apple. The one I didn’t care for was the vanilla, because it was hard; even when it wasn’t cold. But I am eager to try their other items, and I’m sure I will. As soon as I do, I’m pretty sure I’ll update this, because everything looked great!

We had red velvet cupcakes, cupcakes chocolate and peanut butter cookies other stuff… good and yummy and scrumptious.

I’ve been waiting to try this place for awhile. I read some reviews of Hungry Heart when it was still a cart and just never got a chance to get around to it. I happen to see they opened a brick and mortar while I was waiting for my table at The Country Cat. Everything looked delicious and made a mental note to come back a different day to finally try them out! Sad to say, I was a bit disappointed with the outcome. I came by in the AM for some baked goods and coffee before a shift at the hospital… ya know, sustenance and caffeine — life’s necessities. Neither sustenance or caffeine won. Let’s talk about my classic bialy sammich with ham, egg, and white cheddar on an everything bialy. (What is a bialy you ask? According to Dr. Wiki «Unlike a bagel, which is boiled before baking, a bialy is simply baked, and instead of a hole in the middle it has a depression.» According the the kind lady helping me «it’s less chewy than a bagel so it’s better for sandwiches.» Got it?) If you have hypertension aka high blood pressure, DON’T DO IT. It was salt overload. At first I thought it was the ham, since they give a nice portion of it in the sandwich. So I gave my sandwich a tummy tuck and removed some excess meat. Gahhh! it was still salty after that. So, I deconstructed the damn thing and ate the ingredients separately to do some investigative work. By golly George, it was the bialy! Maybe they were a little (a lot) heavy handed on the salt that day for the topping. The bread was inedible alone and forcefully eaten as a sandwich. Never again.
The cappuccino was disappointing, as well. There was too much milk and not enough foam. Delicious latte, but not a cappuccino.
Their only saving grace that day is their french macarons! These were amazing. It has a nice crisp outer shell and the center of each cookie is chewy deliciousness. I tried the salted caramel and lemon curd. Salted caramel was perfection, lemon curd could have been a little more tart. I would only come back for their macarons in the future.

Great location in the heart of Montavilla. Lots of options to drink and eat. Prices are extremely fair. I had the chocolate Croissant and the boy had the summer berry cheese Danish. Both were so very delicious! Definitely will be coming back for a morning brew

Came here in the morning for some pastries and coffee. This used to be a food cart i believe but now have a very nice looking shop. Theres lots of interesting cards and merchandise alone the walls that are cupcake themed as well.
I ordered a cappuccino and a croissant sandwich. The cappuccino was not great, it actually tasted more like a latte. Its probably more of the barista then the coffee beans which were stumptown. For some reason it was also made in a to-​go cup even though i was not asked if it was for here or to go. The croissant sandwich was delicious and flakey, the ham, egg and cheese also yummy.
My girlfriend got an Everything Bialy Sandwich (its like a bagel but baked instead of boiled, its less chewy and more bread like) and a house coffee. The sandwich was extremely salty, so salty we started eating each individual thing in it to see what in the world was going on. We thought it was the ham which was generously piled on. Nope. Maybe it was the cheese, Nope. Lastly we tried the bialy itself, SALTY! Im all for salty foods but this is the kind of over salty that hurts your mouth. We couldnt finish the other half, so i brought it home and ate the baily with cream cheese which i thought might cut the salt.
We decided to have a few macarons, we tried the lemon curd and the salted caramel. Boom. The salted caramel was amazing. Chewy and airy, it has the great texture macaron fans yearn for. The flavor was also great, pockets of salt accentuated by a dark gooey caramel. The lemon curd was also good but found it cloyingly sweet, a hint of tartness would have been good, but flat lined on sweet.
All in all a very nice shop, the staff could have been more welcoming, the coffee meh, the sandwiches hit or miss, but their sweets were right on. Will come back to try a few more flavors and cupcakes when the chance arises.

No cupcakes in the morning.
So driving 30 min after night shift as a nurse to get my husband a cupcake for his birthday didn’t happen. Boo.
Also, not a food truck.
Please update your website to reflect this!

Finally gave Hungry Heart PDX another shot and was not disappointed. As suspected we had just caught a bad batch of Salted Caramel Macarons during our last and first visit.
This time we ordered a dozen of a variety of miniature cupcakes and a ½ dozen of macarons. We had roughly seven different kinds to chose from and got at least one flavor each. None of them were to disappoint. My personal favorites were the «dirt cup» and «lemon drop» (which had a little bit of lemon curd inside).
We stuck to just two flavors with our macron order and were very happy with how they tasted: Salted Caramel and Strawberry Shortcake. Both of them were so delicious, it is hard to say which one was better. The Salted Caramel had a perfect tiny touch of salt and the Strawberry Shortcake Macaron was to die for with the thin layer of strawberry jelly in the middle.
Also the guy behind the counter was super nice and gave us good recommendations in addition to being super patient with our indecisive selfs.
It’s probably a good thing we live 30 minutes away from this place or I’d be stopping by Hungry Heart PDX’s daily!

Their bialys are great, and they serve Stumptown coffee. The Bipartisan Café a block over started selling Water Avenue coffee (which i gross, right?), so I made this my neighborhood go-​to for coffee.
That said, their macaroons aren’t very good. The flavors are often convoluted or too cutsey, and the texture isn’t as airy on the inside as many others I’ve found around town. Also, they have two tiny induction burners that they use to make their «breakfast menu,» meaning it takes like 15 min for a scrambled egg patty on some wilted spinach with really bland hummus.
Everyone working here is really nice though, and the space is inviting.

Great employees, great coffee and mini cupcakes. Definitely a good first impression of this place. I love the mini cactus plants everywhere. So cute!

I can’t enough good things about this establishment. I recently ordered 22 dozen cupcakes for a corporate function and they were a complete success!
Backing it up a bit, i need to mention what sets this place apart from all the other cupcake shops: Amazing customer service!
Jax responded to my email on her day off to let me know that my big order was doable in the short time I needed. She offered me advice as to which flavors would be the most popular and was super patient & helpful when I was wishy-​washy about qty (she again responded to my emails shortly after I sent them, after 9 pm. Seriously, she’s a champ and she’s so easy to work with.
Day of our event, they showed up promptly and looked beautiful!
Jax delivered them herself and brought info cards that described the flavors so our employees could easily make their selection. Good thinking.
Most importantly, we got rave reviews on them — especially the Dark & Dusty!
People were making a point to tell me that we should always use them for our events.
Message heard loud and clear! We will definitely be using Hungry Heart in the future!

Hellloooo brand-​new pastry and java shop — welcome to the neighborhood! I heard a whole lotta buzz about this place before finally giving it a try when I needed some twee sweets for a Valentine’s Day party. I snagged a box of 10 macarons, intending to save them all for my guests the next day — that plan failed miserably. I think I had maybe five left by the time the party rolled around. TIP: Get the salted caramel ones — they are seriously so good. SO GOOD. There were also plenty of other flavors on hand — including a perfect-​for-​V-​day pink variety (flavor: vanilla) with a sprinkling of gold glitter on top. Too stinkin’ cute!
My second visit to the shop was for a queeravilla meetup with some of my lady-​lovin’ ladies from around the ‘nabe — the owner, Jax, was kind enough to let us commander a whole section by the windows, and yak for hours. I tried the drip coffee (do like!!) and everyone else’s drinks looked divine — lattes, hot chocolate with whip (mmmm!), tea… HH has all the hot beverage fixings. Can’t wait to try their iced varieties come summer time!
To soak up the caffeine, I got a pecan cinnamon muffin, which the super-​friendly gal behind the counter warmed up for me. HOLY HEAVEN it was so good. The whole top was basically caramelized deliciousness. I couldn’t have stopped eating it if you’d threatened me with a machete. If you cut off my arm, I’d reach for another bite with my other arm.
Another cute thing? They had a ton of adorable items for purchase — the shop is combined with «It’s a Gift,» which I think used to be its own store on Stark. There were tons of really awesome greeting cards (I’m a greeting card junkie), tabletop succulents, handmade accessories, and general stuff for sale that would, as the name implies, make good gifts.
I’ll definitely be back!

The man and I have been meaning to come try HHPDX for a bit now, and today we bundled up the pups (it was 47 degrees this morning), strapped on our tennis shoes and headed toward Stark Street.
The goal: Burn more calories than we ate in cupcakes.
Success? Nope. Not at all. We ate our weight in the little demon cakes. Like, we couldn’t stop. We shame ate our way through half a dozen cakes before regrettably forcing ourselves to stop.
I’m not usually a fan of cupcakes. I mean, why pay $ 1.50 for a tiny bite when you can pay $ 15 for the whole cake, ammirite?
But HHPDX made me a believer. Get the one with salt on it — it’s ridiculous.
Also get the salted caramel macaroon. Did I not mention we also ate macaroons?
We did.
Gonna be a looooooong day at the gym tomorrow. And super freaking worth it.

Uh oh, looks like there’s a new cookie sheriff in Montavilla. This tiny shop is more than filling the absence left by Pastrygirl’s storefront, and all I can say is that Bipartisan better hope that HH doesn’t start slinging pies, too. The dark chocolate with salted caramel and the sea salt chocolate chip were both insanely delicious and chewy, satisfying and and not overly-​sweet.
They’re only open til 7pm thus far, so not really a hangout spot. But it’s worth a stop in on the regular to satisfy a sweet tooth.

I’m a believer in the joy that a cupcake can bring to one’s life. That’s why I make it my mission to have as many as possible. I make it my mission to discover new and exciting flavors as well.
HHC didn’t disappoint with its bacon cupcake drizzled in caramel and served with a smile.
In a world where bacon is being slathered on everything just for the sake of being slathered, I’m happy to say that this combination actually works. It’s not another «bacon makes everything taste better» type of foolery. It actually meshed with well with the other elements of the cupcakes and elevates the taste. Every bite took me to another place and it’s not every day a cupcake does that for me.
Try not to miss this experience.